The Madison Police Department held a meeting Monday night to relay downtown crime statistics to the public and further review the $100,000 Safety Initiative.
MPD Capt. Mary Schauf, Central District Commander, headed the meeting. Along with other members of the force, she compiled statistics for February and March of this semester. Crime trends were, for the most part, overwhelmingly lower than at this point last year.
Most notable was the rise in sexual assaults this past March.
The report showed seven sexual assaults occurred in March, the most over the seven-year period that police looked at. However, Schauf said the statistic is slightly skewed because three of the seven assaults are based on an alleged drug and prostitution ring near the State and Langdon Street area.
Still, Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, said the statistics do not do tell the story, at least on campus. He said a slew of sexual assaults go unreported each semester and if they were taken into account, it would raise the police statistic to an unimaginable number.
""If you want to talk about how many actual cases of sex assault we have on campus, they will be through the roof,"" Judge said. ""Students are terrified when it comes to sexual assault, not only in the fact that they happen, but if it happens to them, whether to report it.""
Police, however, said the impression alcohol has on the livelihood downtown limits their capabilities to squelch crime on campus and downtown. MPD Lt. Joe Balles said the alcohol scene downtown must change because officers are being put in many more dangerous situations than ever before.
""It really is a culture of alcohol,"" Balles said. ""Downtown Madison is not what it was 10 years ago ... everybody is drinking and nobody's rational. These situations are just very dangerous.""
Schauf said the most alarming trend she has seen is the overcrowding of sidewalks. She said the increased police presence provided by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's $100,000 safety initiative has only begun to help pacify crime downtown. Balles noted incidents of bar owners being cited for supply to minors have increased, which he said only adds to the stress police are already under.
""We are at capacity in terms of what we can deal with right now,"" Balles said.
Numerous concerned residents suggested levying heavier restrictions on bar owners who are caught supplying to minors. They also expressed fears of mounting violence centering on bar time fights.
Balles said disorderly conduct is the number one arrest right now. He said in the summer, the police plan to set up the Wi-Fi cameras—paid for by the safety initiative. Still, he said their impact is yet to be seen because a number of cameras already exist in and around the downtown area.
In the end, Schauf and Balles agreed arrests would continue to climb as more money pours into the force.
""Something on the alcohol scene has to change,"" Balles said, adding that arrests may not be the end all, but they are a start.
